The present invention relates to the general field of turbine engines blades provided with metal reinforcement on their leading edges. The invention relates more particularly to tooling and to a method for fastening metal reinforcement on the leading edge of a turbine engine blade that is made of composite material.
It is known for fan blades of a turbine engine that are made of composite material to be fitted with structural reinforcement made of metal that extends over the full height of each blade. Such reinforcement serves to protect a composite blade in the event of an impact against the fan of a foreign body, such as a bird being ingested by the turbine engine, for example.
A known method of fastening metal reinforcement on the leading edge of a composite material blade is as follows. The blade is held in a support and a spanwise positioning marker for the leading edge of the blade is put into place. An adhesive film is then applied to the surfaces of the leading edge of the blade and the metal reinforcement is manually prepositioned on the leading edge of the blade. The adhesive is then polymerized in an autoclave.
Such a method presents numerous drawbacks. In particular, it is a manual method that depends on an operator, thereby presenting a high risk of variation in the material soundness of the adhesive and of variation in the relative positioning of the parts that are assembled together. Such risks need to be compensated by a very strict inspection regime. This leads to high production costs.